Movie Review — Iron Man 3

The summer movie season usually kicks off the first weekend of May. So, the film industry usually saves a film they think will open the busiest season of the movie-going year with a bang. This year’s anticipated opening blockbuster is Iron Man 3. “Certified Fresh” by Rotten Tomatoes, Iron Man 3 delivers on what our expectation of a summer movie should be — big, loud, funny, and generally entertaining all-around. Here’s the trailer:

SPOILER FREE. While called Iron Man 3, it’s really the fourth part of the Tony Stark universe. If you haven’t seen The Avengers (last year’s big summer movie debut), then you will be out of the loop. Plus, in the post-LOTR sci-fi fanboy mold, one needs to be somewhat familiar with the first two Iron Man films as well — there is not a lot of time spent explaining the past to get the casual movie-goer caught up.

OK. Once that’s taken care of, Iron Man 3 is a lot of fun. The original movie beat my expectations, the second part was just the first one on steroids, but Iron Man 3 moves the story to a more personal level — Tony Stark’s personal demons, his past catching up with him, and a new bad guy reminiscent of an Osama Bin Laden-like terrorist. I don’t want to give anything away about the plot at this point, but it’s a clear improvement from Iron Man 2 and has real twists here and there.

Rotten Tomatoes scores the movie with a 78%. For entertainment value and spectacle, the movie is great, but suffers from being a sequel to a story that’s only OK, not riveting. I’d give it a B+ for the fun, the twists, and the spectacle. However, the casual movie goer may agree with RT’s C+ (not everyone’s a fanboy), but if you like the series, Iron Man 3 is a clear improvement from the second film.